The Philippines air-dropped food and water to soldiers posted on a grounded transport ship on a disputed South China Sea shoal after China blocked two supply ships from reaching the troops, a senior navy official said on Wednesday.
Chinese ships patrolling waters around Second Thomas Shoal, known in China as the Renai reef, on Sunday ordered the Philippine ships carrying construction materials to leave the area.
Beijing claims Manila is trying to start construction on the disputed reef after it ran aground an old transport ship in 1999 to mark its territory and stationed marines on the ship. Manila claims the shoal is part of the Philippine’s continental shelf.
“We only intend to improve the conditions there, we have no plans to expand or build permanent structures on the shoal,” said a Philippine Navy official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press. “On Monday, we sent a navy Islander plane to drop food and water, but it will only last a few days. We really have to send back the civilian boats. Since last year, we’ve been resupplying our troops using civilian ships to avoid confrontation and this was the first time China blocked them.”
On Tuesday, Manila summoned the second-highest Chinese embassy official to hand over a strongly worded protest, calling the blockade “a clear and urgent threat to the rights and interests of the Philippines.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said Beijing had called in Philippine diplomats to lodge a protest in response.
“The Philippines’ motive in trying to illegally occupy Renai reef and create incidents in the South China Sea is abundantly clear. China calls on the Philippines to stop all its provocative actions,” Qin said.
The Second Thomas Shoal, a strategic gateway to Reed Bank, believed to be rich in oil and natural gas, is one of several possible maritime flashpoints that could prompt the US to intervene in defense of Asian allies troubled by increasingly assertive Chinese maritime claims.
On Wednesday, Washington said it was troubled by China’s blockage of the Philippine ships, calling it “a provocative move that raises tensions.”
“Pending resolution of competing claims in the South China Sea, there should be no interference with the efforts of claimants to maintain the status quo,” US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
She added that “freedom of navigation” in the area “must be maintained.”
China has objected to efforts by Manila to challenge its territorial claims under the Law of the Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, Netherlands.
Ernest Bower of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said new pressure on Manila could be due to China’s perception that the US has shown weakness in dealing with crises in Syria and Ukraine, and would be similarly lacking in resolve in Asia — in spite of its declared policy “pivot” to the region.
It also reflected Chinese concerns about negotiations expected to bring about broader access for US troops to the Philippines, he said.
“The Chinese see a very unhappy situation in the Philippines — that one of their smaller neighbors is taking them to court and working with the Americans for expanded military access,” Bower said. “It does not fit with the Chinese script of where they want to be in terms of the South China Sea and their sovereign claims.”
Bower said such incidents raise the risk that a small clash could escalate and it was important for the US to make its commitment to the region clear ahead of a planned visit to Asia, including the Philippines, by US President Barack Obama next month.
“The Chinese look at the situation in Syria and Ukraine, and they look at the so-called Asia pivot, and they don’t think there is any political foundation that has been built that would support American action in Asia if push came to shove,” he said.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole